Tuesday, 3 July 2018

[Only] a few hours in Amsterdam & Paris

What
to do? What to do? J

I
take advantage of all my stopovers. So, when the opportunity to see Amsterdam
for the second time arose, en route to Panama and at no extra costs, I didn’t
say ‘No’. On the contrary. Especially under a sweet and playful sun.

Only
a short walk from Amsterdam Centraal were the canals

and
the flowers

and
the pancakes!

Dubbed
one of the best places in the Dutch capital to have a hearty breakfast, ‘The Pancake Bakery’ is so famous that it was even featured on TV shows! And it was
full. But we didn’t mind waiting.

And
I should tell you that it was worth it!

Our
return flight from Panama City left us highly tired and jet-lagged. And Paris
was hot! Still, we chose Montmartre as our base and I must admit, on my third
visit to my teenage years’ favourite city, that I had disregarded the area… and
I don’t really know the reasons for that. If, at first, stepping outside Gare du
Nord seemed to have me face a Paris that I remembered, in only a few minutes I
felt it turn into a clogged space with too many stores adorning merchandise of
questionable quality.

Un petit dodo later, we went out
to meet our friends Andreea and Alex on a peaceful yet trendy street, having the
kind personnel at 'La Taverne de Zhao' as our hosts for the next two hours or so.
Some interesting desserts they have there, by the way.

Flan au thé vert

A
walk along Canal Saint-Martin ended a very beautiful and cheerful evening.

Sadly,
heavy rain cut all our exploring plans for the following morning short.

We had
to settle for croissants and didn’t
have the chance to roam the streets more. As I told Marcel, we will be back.